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Guatemalan Court Acquits Former President of Embezzling

MEXICO CITY — A Guatemalan court has acquitted a former president, Alfonso Portillo, of charges that he embezzled state money.

The decision appeared to be a setback to United Nations-sponsored efforts to reform Guatemala’s corruption-racked judicial system. Guatemalan prosecutors, assisted by a special United Nations commission, accused Mr. Portillo, along with his defense and finance ministers, of having illegally transferred $15 million to the Ministry of National Defense in 2001. The prosecutors contended that the money was then withdrawn as cash.

But a panel of judges voted 2 to 1 to acquit the three late Monday. The two judges in favor of acquittal discredited evidence from two crucial witnesses and argued there was not enough evidence to show that Mr. Portillo and the ministers handled the money.

Photo

The former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo in a courtroom in Guatemala City on Monday.Credit
Rodrigo Arias/Reuters

The case against Mr. Portillo; his defense minister, Eduardo Arévalo Laks; and his finance minister, Manuel Hiram Maza Castellanos, was seen as emblematic of attempts to fight powerful groups in Guatemala that operate criminal networks.

Some of these groups involve former military officers who waged a clandestine war against government opponents in the 1970s and 1980s, while others are more recent organizations linked to drug trafficking, smuggling and illegal adoptions.

The acquittal “reflects the real state of justice in Guatemala” and confirms the commission’s mission of fighting impunity, according to a statement released by the commission, led by a former Costa Rican attorney general, Francisco Dall’Anese. “Guatemalan society must demand an impartial, equitable and independent judicial system,” it said. “Nobody can be above the law.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 11, 2011, on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Guatemalan Court Acquits Former President of Embezzling. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe